1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to a method of and apparatus for dispensing both particulate ice and cold beverage wherein a common supply of ice is used firstly for dispensing and then secondly for cooling of the beverage, with irreversibility so that cooling ice is never dispensed.
2. The Prior Art
C. M. Lents U.S. Pat. No. 4,423,830 has a rotary ice dispensing rotor directly atop a cold plate. The same ice is used for both cooling and dispensing. Lents is commercially successful. The problem with using the same ice for dispensing and cooling is that the ice picks up metal as it is moved about on a cold plate, and the trace metallic content in the beverage is questionable and/or objectionable. Regardless, marketing efforts to improve the quality of dispensed cold beverage demand separation of ice for dispensing and cooling.
D. G. Hovinga U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,715 is an example of a device for separating ice into dispensing and cooling fractions. The market wants improvements over the beverage cooling performance of Hovinga. The structural requirements of the Hovinga drive mechanism are extremely high and expensive to satisfy, and higher volumetric capacity of the ice bin is being demanded by the market.